


Lucid

by redolater



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Angst (?) War, Baron gets Pinocchio’d, Canon Divergence, FH Baron, Fantasy High Junior Year, Incomplete, Likely To Diverge Canon, Multi, Post-Canon, Some violent imagery, Spoilers!, Worse Chapters Will Have Warnings, angst war, so many spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:34:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24580891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redolater/pseuds/redolater
Summary: Riz’s eyes were the last thing Baron ever saw.Or at least, they were supposed to be.
Relationships: TO BE DETERMINED - Relationship
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	1. Mystra and the Bullet

Wind circled unnaturally overhead in the Nightmare King’s Forest, capturing one moment within its invisible, whistling walls. A goblin with a newsboy hat and a briefcase stood with an arm outstretched. He held a gun pointed straight ahead at...well, to anyone else, nothing. That goblin was Riz Gukgak. He, and only he, could see that his gun was trained on the thing known as Baron.  
Baron was nothing but an entity embodying a lie. A lie Riz had told. They were comprised of a white, skeletal build, with a straight, bright bob. Nondescript clothing. A stand in. Every one of their traits indicated the lack of conceptualization. Like an uncolored page of a coloring book, Baron awaited more details. And, as made apparent by Riz’s gun pointed in their direction, they awaited a bullet, too.  
There was only a split-second of introspection allotted to Baron when Riz’s small finger curled around the trigger. Their last thoughts were of how focused their assailant looked, how his catlike pupils dilated when he, at last, took the shot. It rang out in the forest, undoubtably unheard. Before Baron knew it, the middle of their neck was pierced by a gray blur. They were dead before they even hit the ground. Riz’s eyes were the last thing Baron ever saw.

Or at least, they were supposed to be. 

Baron’s eyes opened in an infinite abyss of dark ink. “What..?” Their voice sank in the heavy void, reaching the ears of no one. “Where...what is this?” Even shouting did Baron no good. They glanced to where their hands were supposed to be, and..there they were, somehow numb. Baron, to the best of their knowledge, was in hell or purgatory or something, but...do lies live afterlives? And this, this was certainly not hell as Riz had seen it.  
Baron was a one-sided concept. That bullet saw them extinguished from the mortal plane, where they embodied Riz’s fear. Speaking of the bullet, Baron moved their hand (which was like moving through honey) and felt at where their neck should be.  
Hot red blood spilt onto their hand, and — god, it hurt, which was something Baron had never experienced before. They weren’t aware they could be hurt, they weren’t even aware of physical touch! When they first met Riz and dragged him by the ankles through the mirror, Baron was only slightly aware of what it was like to touch, to grasp. It was like reaching for something in a dream. 

Was this some sort of dream? 

Baron had never questioned their environment before, never had a single question about anything besides Riz. “Where am I?” They screeched into the blackness surrounding them, hearing no echo, barely even registering their own voice. Baron thrashed in the syrupy void, unable to determining if they were actually moving around or not.  
And then..  
Silver eyes opened within the darkness. Baron’s mouth fell open as a figure appeared around those eyes, forming a face, then a body, the silhouette outlined in radiant light. “Who are you?” Baron demanded, feeling heat from where the other person was. 

Feminine, with short wavy hair nearly indistinguishable from the darkness. A deep purple cloak, with shiny boots poking out from underneath. Baron was feet shorter than this person, whoever they were, and their face — similarly pale to Baron’s, but defined, unique, seemed to smile down at them. “Some might call me Midnight,” they said, in a female-sounding voice, but Baron would never assume so based on appearance and voice alone. (An opinion? Very new.) “But please, call me Mystra.” Mystra. Mystra? Baron felt as though they should know who Mystra was, but...they knew very little, without being fleshed out.  
“Mystra,” Baron said, their strange accent fumbling over the vowels. “Are you...are you a woman?” They didn’t understand why that was funny, but Mystra began to laugh.  
“I am more than a woman, small one. I am a goddess.” Mystra’s smile was so maternal and beautiful, Baron couldn’t help but be envious. They knew their smile was just..off-putting and creepy. Uncanny. “You must be wondering where you are, Baron,” Mystra continued, hardly waiting for them to respond. “This is a little corner of my domain. It’s a tad bleak, at the moment, but if you like, you can change that.” She lowered a manicured palm to Baron, handing them a little orb of fluctuating light. 

Baron held it, thinking for a moment that it was a little cold in their hand, and suddenly it became ice cold. “What is this?” They inquired, wishing it was less cold, and automatically it burnt their hand. A yelp escaped them, alerting Mystra to set a finger on it, returning it to a manageable heat for one’s hand.  
“It’s a little magical component you can use to change something. Go on. You can change the environment, change temperatures, change your voice, anything, really. There are few magical limitations in my domain.”  
Baron blinked, grasping the orb and then thinking. Suddenly, they and Mystra were standing in the office of Riz Gukgak, empty and lit by the morning sun. 

Mystra took a seat in a swivel chair, crossing one leg over another. Baron stood in front of her, awkward, and set the orb on a desk covered by papers. “What..um, Mystra, what am I...what am I doing? I don’t think I, it does not seem that I should be. Alive? Existing?” This, again, didn’t seem like a joke, but Mystra laughed anyways.  
In the light, Baron could see her much better. She had the face of a young woman with dark lipstick, pencilled eyebrows, and a beauty mark below her eye. Mystra could’ve been a silent film star. “Well, Baron, you were brought into existence by the magic of a powerful plague.” Kalina, Baron thought. They were aware of Kalina, yes, but they had never spoken to each other. “And since I am the prevalent goddess of magic, I had the power to preserve you when she was, well, destroyed.” Mystra said all this as if it was simple knowledge, which baffled Baron. 

Instead of saying anything, they peered over at a board hung on the wall. Pictures pinned on the wall were connected by string, with occasional notes strewn around. Off to the side of the connected strings, though, was a photograph of Riz. He was smiling, caught in the middle of laughing. His friends were there. Baron had never seen their faces, but they knew that the group was happy. And that, well, that stirred some unknowable anger in them. A strong half-elf had his arm slung around Riz, which was too hard to bear, frankly, so they tapped the orb. Immediately the picture changed: Baron was there with Riz, instead of the muscular guy, and his other friends vanished. This seemed to be the only thing that Mystra didn’t laugh at. In fact, she seemed to grimace at the petty action. It was then that Baron spoke up. “Why did you preserve me?” They asked, once again facing the goddess. 

Insight, truth be told, was not Baron’s strong suit. They couldn’t tell what Mystra was going to say. Certainly, “I just think you’re neat,” was not what Baron had anticipated hearing. ‘Neat’ did not quote fit their description, at least to their knowledge.  
Baron hopped up onto the desk to sit. “So I am neat,” they mused, butchering the words again in their accent.  
Mystra nodded. “Yes. I think it would be such a shame if you were cast away, Baron, you have so much potential.” The words hung in the air and Baron didn’t know what to do with that. Potential?  
“What are you saying?” They whispered, eyebrows raised. Mystra again giggled, taking joy from their earnest expression.  
She brought her hand, soft, manicured, elegant, to Baron’s cheek. They could’ve melted; no one had ever regarded them tenderly. “I want to bring you back into the mortal plane.”

Baron screamed. In the face of a goddess. This was too much for their simple brain. What potential did they hold? Mystra, taken aback by Baron’s shriek, retracted her hand from their face. “Baron,” she said softly. “Do you not want to go back?” Confusion oozed from her voice and was written all over her face. Baron didn’t know what to say, opting to just..scream again. A little softer, this time. Mystra gave a (thoroughly bewildered) smile this time. “I can bring you back,” she repeated. “I will give you a more physical vessel. I will give you faculty of all of your senses. In return for this, Baron, I ask one thing of you,” Mystra told them. Baron nodded, silently telling her to continue. “You were imagined by Riz Gukgak,” she said. “A bespoke nightmare has similarly been imagined by Riz Gukgak. I should not speak its name, but...” she sighed, looking back down to Baron, her silver eyes becoming more serious. “You, Baron, will be the only one capable of killing it. Riz and his friends are not strong enough yet. With the magic I give you, you will be able to defeat it, Baron. You must.”

Well. Baron could not refuse such a trade-off. It would be nice to be alive. To be real. Perhaps..perhaps they could finally know something other than a hollow attachment to Riz. That realization shocked Baron. As an imagined lie, Baron never thought for themself. They never had the ability to. It was nice to have thoughts. Really, this was the easiest decision Baron could make. The first, as well. “Mystra, I, um. Thank you for this. I will not be the one to let you down.” They met Mystra’s eyes again to discover a glimmering tear streaming from her eye.  
Then Mystra opened her palm to reveal the bullet that had been lodged into Baron’s throat. Seeing it reminded Baron of the wound, which they prodded around for, but...no more blood. It had scabbed over in the goddess’s presence. Baron accepted the bullet, gracious but not understanding. “This will serve as your arcane focus,” Mystra explained. “Hold it and you can access some of my magic. Speak to it and I will hear. I may be busy, though, so just sit tight if I don’t respond right away.” 

Baron slipped the bullet into the pocket of their slacks. “Thank you again, Mystra, I, yes, thank you.” They saw a brief reflection of themself in the office window. “And, um, is there anything you could do to change..this?” Baron made a gesture around their face, referencing their creepy appearance. Mystra sighed, her hand moving to rest on Baron’s shoulder.  
“I could, I suppose, but frankly, the spell would not last very long, and it would be terribly inconvenient to have to recast it over and over again. There is someone who could change you permanently, though.” She stood from the swivel chair, channeling some sort of spell silently.  
“Who?” Baron asked quickly when they realized she was using some sort of teleporting spell on them. 

Mystra laughed again, jovial, maternal, and winked at Baron. “I think you already know who.”

Baron spun through the planes of existence, briefly, and realizing how dizzying teleportation was had to be their least favorite physical experience so far. They landed, suddenly, on cold, green grass, unlike any sort of fauna in the Nightmare King’s Forest. They lifted their head, glanced around, seeing houses and cars go by, receiving a couple of odd stares from passers by. But...but they were seeing Baron, for the first time, and Baron was being seen. They stood, grinning, and found themselves staring up at a tall, tall apartment building. ‘Strongtower Luxury Apartments’ read one sign. With no semblance of grace, Baron hobbled for the front door, swung it open, and began to run up the tacky, carpeted stairs.


	2. Sweet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hello, Riz Gukgak!”
> 
> Oh fuck. Oh shit, what the fuck? 
> 
> “Wh..Baron?”

Riz Gukgak was enjoying an oddly quiet morning. He squeezed past his office door, mug of coffee in hand, and settled into his swivel chair to read over the notes he’d received in the mail. According to a scout that Aguefort himself hired, the Night Yorb had gone into hiding in Frostheim, thousands of miles north, which gave him and the rest of the Bad Kids time to finish up their summer and hopefully get through most of the school year. Riz took a long sip as he soaked in each detail - apparently, the beast was adjusting well to its new, freezing environment. Curious. He and Fabian has joked about it making itself a nice home up there, getting comfortable until they finally came to whoop its ass. 

Riz set his coffee on a coaster (a stack of folded notes from two cases back) and pushed himself from his desk over to the almost empty board. A rare sight. He pinned a sketch from the scout to the center before pulling a small piece of red string from his pocket. Then he connected the new clue to the only other one on the board: a photograph of Garthy O’Brien, the only potential lead. A lead on what, though? Riz slumped in his chair, staring at the clues as if they would suddenly come alive and reveal the secrets of the Night Yorb to him like that. The amount of free space on the conspiracy board was disheartening. At least there was a picture of him and the other Bad Kids in the corner. 

When he finally scooted back to his desk, there was a sharp knock on the office door. Fabian, maybe. Or his mom. Whoever was knocking sounded urgent. He rose to let his visitor in, seeing that the glass obscured the figure behind it. However, there was the hint of a silhouette. They were shorter than Fabian, but taller than his mom...was it Adaine out there? Riz flung it open, and—

“Hello, Riz Gukgak!”

Oh fuck. Oh shit, what the fuck? 

“Wh..Baron?”

Standing before him was the creature who’d dragged him through the mirror to be sacrificed. The very same creature who’d taunted him about his sexuality and his place in his own friend group. The very same Baron he shot weeks ago. A sickening scab on Baron’s neck confirmed the impossible: they had been revived somehow, or, wait, no, what if this was just another dream? A hallucination? Silence buzzed in Riz’s ears while the gears shifted in his brain. “What the fuck are you doing here, Baron?” He hissed, waving his hand forward, testing to see if it would just pass through Baron’s face. It didn’t. His palm cracked into their cold cheek, an audible slap echoing in the hallway. Oh, god, they were real. 

Baron’s sunken eyes held nothing but demented joy, though, at seeing Riz again. Before Mystra brought them back, every feeling was so disconnected from them, so numb. The reddening handprint across their face was anything but. “I am back, Riz Gukgak! And more alive than before.” They chirped, which fully disturbed Riz. Baron had always been weird, but not particularly cheery.   
“Right, yeah, cool, how? And uh, why? And, how should I say this, get the fuck out of here? And my life?” Neurons fired faster in Riz’s brain than he ever thought possible. Baron’s smile only faltered for a second.   
They lifted their hands, palms out, a universal symbol of surrender. “Fear not, I am not here to harm you, Riz Gukgak. I am here to help.”

Yeah, in Riz’s book, that was professionally classified as bullshit. He palmed for where his gun usually hung off his belt to find nothing there. Shit, he left it downstairs...Baron noticed this. Their eyebrow twitched. “There is no reason to fight me, Riz Gukgak,” Baron promised, producing a familiar bullet from their slacks. “If you hurt me, I shall, ah, rend you asunder with, umm. Magic?” Baron’s expression turned sheepish when they realized they had no clue how to use their arcane focus.   
Riz just snarled at them. “Magic, huh? Fine. You..said you’re here to help?” Praying to whoever the fuck might listen that he wasn’t making a colossal mistake, Riz took a step back to invite Baron into his office. 

They kept their hands up as they walked in, somehow unbothered by clutching the bloodied bullet. “I was rescued by a goddess. She gave me this and told me to help you defeat the beast which she could not name. Do you know this beast, Riz Gukgak?”  
This shit was ridiculous. Riz knew that the Bad Kids would need some assistance in taking down the Night Yorb, but never in a thousand years would he have predicted that Baron, his newly not-dead, practically imaginary not-partner, would be among his allies. He downed the rest of his coffee, knowing he’d need another cup soon to help swallow all this new information. 

“Fucking amazing,” Riz whispered, a little hysterical, very annoyed. “You’re gonna have to prove it to me, you know. That you’re not gonna fucking, you know, do the owl spin thing with your head and fuck with me about the whole, you know. All that.”   
The eyes that had previously been the last thing Baron ever saw were trained on them again, with the same focus, but with much less urgency. “I swear to you, Riz Gukgak, I will pull no shit on you. So long as you do not pull your gun on me.”   
What was most awful about Baron, now, was that their hair was no longer just wig on a mannequin’s head. Their eyes, matte black, no distinction between “whites” and pupil, actually blinked. Before, a voice just came from behind a still line in their face. Riz didn’t realize that it was much worse, now, that their mouth was really a mouth, and it moved when they spoke. Whoever reanimated Baron, Riz thought, was worlds more powerful than Kalina. They weren’t a mannequin, anymore, but they still looked like one. 

Baron sat in a regular chair on the side of the main desk, a spot often unfilled. “Feeling things like a humanoid does is wonderful,” they sighed, fully unprompted. “It is a joy to have a tangible form, Riz Gukgak. I am sure that this is something you take for granted.” Baron squealed, running a bony hand through their hair. “I feel as though I am the puppet from the cartoon movie you may know.”   
Riz stared them down with exhausted eyes. “Do you mean, fucking...Pinocchio?” He managed to whisper, to the delight of Baron, who clasped their hands together.   
“Yes, yes! That is the one. It seems I am a ‘real boy’ now.” Their face dimmed. “I am not a boy, though, am I, Riz Gukgak?”   
Just when Riz was starting to accept the fact that Baron was real and in his office, it was fully uncomfortable to speak to them again. 

He sat in his own chair, cursing life and karma internally. “This isn’t a conversation I’ll ever be prepared to deal with,” Riz groaned, rubbing his temples. “I don’t fucking know? Are you a dude?”  
When Riz said that, a bit of stubble popped up on Baron’s jaw. “My identity is unfortunately not mine, Riz Gukgak,” they realized out loud in a voice two octaves lower than it used to be.   
Riz’s mouth fell open to gasp, then he closed it, but then he opened it to speak, but what the fuck was he supposed to say? “I, uh, what?” Riz rubbed his eyes. The more he noticed masculinity in Baron’s form, the more appeared. Their shoulder’s broadened. The softness in their jaw faded. 

It clicked in his head. 

Riz held some sort of power over Baron, somehow. When he told his friends about Baron, when Baron wasn’t a vehicle of Kalina to taunt him, he didn’t have a person in mind. He didn’t visualize anything about Baron; Kalina did that for him. Making them gender-neutral, making them resemble a goblin, making them nearly lifeless...Baron was like a default character for Riz to customize. That responsibility, outside of a video game, was fucking terrifying. “Oh shit,” Riz said, because he wasn’t sure what else to. “I don’t want that, uh, it’s gross of me to choose what you look like, um, I’ll just...” 

Riz’s eyes squeezed shut. He visualized Baron from when they first appeared: pale, baby-faced, with the weird bangs and the ambiguous voice. After he opened his eyes, he found that very same Baron in front of him. “So I am not a boy,” they said, voice treading the line between disappointed and confused. Riz didn’t know what to do with that.   
So he cleared his throat. “Baron,” he mumbled, a little gentler than before. “Do you want to be a boy?” Baron’s empty eyes blinked. 

That was something Baron didn’t know. They gave a sort of helpless shrug, unknowingly mirroring the same shrug Riz gave when the Bad Kids asked more about Fabian. “I do not know, Riz Gukgak,” they admitted. “I am what you want me to be. I was supposed to be your romance partner,” Riz cringed at hearing those words once more. Baron’s accent was unlike any other he’d ever heard, butchering every phrase effortlessly. The affectations to their voice were as made up as they were. “I guess the question is,” Baron continued. “Riz Gukgak, would you want to date a boy?” 

There it was. God dammit. Riz didn’t need or want a physical embodiment of his sexuality, or whatever the fuck Kalina made Baron to be. He didn’t know what the fuck he was, or who he would date, or if he even found people attractive at all. Kristen once told him about asexuality, and that sort of felt right. Like a jacket that felt nice but was too tight around his arms. Riz..Riz didn’t know if he was asexual. Maybe someday he’d find someone, and the world would come alive with rainbows and flowers and shit (or whatever the fuck happened when you fell in love). For now, Baron was that empty, label-less space where his sexuality was supposed to sit. Good. Great. Riz definitely needed that: 

“Just wanna make something clear,” Riz swallowed, though his mouth was dry. “I’m not gonna date you, Baron. We’re not gonna be romance partners or whatever, okay? I don’t like you.” This, somehow, crushed Baron, though they never suspected they had a chance with Riz anyways.   
They nodded and replied, “The feeling is mutual,” which was suddenly the second biggest fib ever uttered. (right behind Baron’s origin.)   
“Great,” Riz decided to play along as if he wasn’t fully taking in the fall of of their shoulders. “I don’t know if I’d date a dude or if I’d date a girl, or if I’d date someone who wasn’t a guy or a girl. And, uhh, Baron. I’m not gonna choose what you look like, alright? You can call the shots on how you present like. I’ll do the, um, change-y thing if you ask me to.”

Baron tilted their head, glancing at Riz’s window to see their reflection. They knew enough about the world to know that they didn’t look normal. Maybe abnormality was fine for them, but...a new feeling in their chest suggested that it would be nice to fit in. “Thank you, Riz Gukgak,” Baron spoke after a few quiet moments, not anticipating the sensation of what felt like their throat closing up, and their eyes sort of stinging.   
Riz shot them a thumbs up. “It’s, um. Well. It’s no problem, Baron. What the fuck. This is so fucking weird.” He dropped his head into one of his hands. “Shit, well, you’re gonna need a place to stay, I guess. There’s not a lot of space with me and mom, so... fuck it, I’ll see if Mordrid Manor has any spare rooms.” Riz looked at Baron again, once again considering the risk of keeping them alive. What if Kalina had been somehow preserved as well? What if Baron was planning on hurting him? One of his friends? “And remember. I don’t know if I can trust you. So expect a second bullet in your throat if you pull a fast one on us.” 

Baron nodded wordlessly, watching while Riz took out his phone and typed out a little message. He stood, shoved it back into his pocket, and looked down to Baron. “Well, alright. Let’s get going, I guess.” 

The walk across Elmville was bountiful of new things for Baron. Heat from the sun, smell of clipped grass, sounds of dogs barking, all were wonderful new things catalogued in their mind. Opinions formed in their head, like that the little flowers with tall, violet petals looked cute. When they mentioned that to Riz, he paused and plucked a stem with multiple of the tiny flowers on it. “It’s a honeysuckle,” Riz told them, pinching one of the petals and pulling it from the stem. The purple faded into a sort of light, translucent color. “You can eat this part.” Riz bit off the end of the honeysuckle, offering the stem to Baron. They continued walking, but Baron held on tight to the little weed in their hand. The sweet end of the honeysuckle was the first thing they’d ever tasted. ‘Sweet’ floated into their mind, despite the fact that they’d never known anything to be sweet before. 

After a long while of walking, and Riz pointing out buildings and explaining why they were there, pointing out other weeds and wildflowers, and otherwise making chat about how blue the sky was and how green the grass was, Mordrid Manor came into view.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thank you so much for reading! Comments and kudos make my day.

**Author's Note:**

> It’s a Baron fic, baybee! I hope you like it. The next chapter should be available soon. As always, thank you so much for reading and comments and Kudos make my day!


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